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Giulio Prisco's avatar

Great book! I read it cover to cover in a few hours yesterday. Now I'll read it again, slower, to savor it and think about what you say. I think you are right, IIT is a theory of thingness rather than consciousness. I'll try to better understand causal emergence. Now that the book is out, I hope you'll write more about these things.

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Nick O'Connor's avatar

Sounds great. Looking forward to buying it. Nothing wrong with good pop-sci. Just started reading On The Origin Of Species for the first time, and had never realised it's pop-sci - as Darwin makes unashamedly clear in the introduction. Pop-sci can change the world.

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Chaos Goblin's avatar

Kindle is offering me a double points day today, I read the universe's message loud and clear.

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Blair Johnson's avatar

Congrats Erik! I'll be diving into my copy soon.

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Brian Mapes's avatar

Lovely book! I stumbled across your causal emergence stuff a few years ago, so hungry for clarity in the emergence and complexity swirl and sometimes swamp. Nice to see it here, emplaced in this much larger firmament of humanity! I accidentally pre ordered two and will pass it around, maybe to a Santa Fe colleague who also has a coarse-grained causality idea I recently encountered. Someday these vapid tropes of over-reductionism needn’t haunt young minds, right? Already only silly geeks need proof we exist. Speaking for such as us, thank you thank you. It got a bit deep in the weeds there for a while, but necessarily so perhaps, for some readers. Great work!

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The Delinquent Academic's avatar

Epic my bro - I'll be getting one sent all the way to New Zealand!

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Giulio Prisco's avatar

Hi Erik, great book! I wrote a review:

https://www.turingchurch.com/p/review-the-world-behind-the-world

I published the review in my Substack but didn't email it out yet. I'll edit it if you have clever counterpoints for some slightly critical points such as "my impression is that causal emergence is a form of strong emergence" (nothing wrong with that, but you say it isn't) and "I have some reservations on non-predictability as a proxy for free will."

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Corwin Slack's avatar

Finished my first pass. I think there will be several more readings.

I am yet more convinced that paradox is a central feature of the world.

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Jenn Im's avatar

My copy just arrived today! So excited to read it. (:

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Brian Sherwin's avatar

The world behind the world behind ripening mangoes.

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Joe Canimal's avatar

Just came! Can't wait; biggest release since that Friston compendium <a href="https://ibb.co/zJRQ8Fb"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/zJRQ8Fb/Smart-Select-20230725-190802-Gallery.jpg" alt="Smart-Select-20230725-190802-Gallery" border="0"></a>

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Elle Griffin's avatar

So excited to see it pop into my kindle library today!!! Happy launch day!!!!!!

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Matt Habermehl's avatar

Just arrived via Amazon. Will be digging into it tonight. Can't wait!

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Matt Habermehl's avatar

Ugh. I have no self-control. Already halfway through chapter 2. Lovely writing. But I really do have to work, Erik, so please... stop being so interesting! ;-)

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Chris Blatchly's avatar

Jabberwocky!!?? That's my local bookstore. Unfortunately I have another commitment this Friday evening. Would I be able to get a signed copy I could pick up later? Also, why Jabberwocky as your first stop on the book tour?

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Erik Hoel's avatar

There will definitely be extra signed copies available at the store, but they'll only be signed after I visit.

Oh, it's always my first stop, as it's the store I grew up in and used to work in when I was a teenager (from about 2003 - 2008ish). My mother, Sue Little, is the owner.

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Sienna Stanford's avatar

How exciting a moment this must be for you. Congrats! You've clearly put lots of hard work into your book. I'm happy to buy a copy and support!

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Erik Hoel's avatar

Thanks Sienna, appreciate that

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Andrew Boryga's avatar

Congrats man! Happy Pub Day

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